Re: [#1311] Should we permit multiple labels for one form control?

I had said that more then one label should be allowed per control. This is
because there is often more then one piece of text that is often associated
with a form control, like, for example, a note that seas filling in this
form control is "required".
 If users do not know what pieces of a form is required they will waist a
lot of time .

XForms only allow one lable for a form control, but I think you can also add
help like a tool tip etc. In other words there is space for more information
about each form control.

In HTML -until we get to XHTML 2.0- we use just label. So we may need to
reuse it for each form control to give the form controls  label, note, help,
tool tip - whatever text/content  that  the user needs before filling in the
information.

 I would vote user agents need to read all labels per form control


Keep well
L
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Cooper
  To: WAI GL (E-mail)
  Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 6:47 PM
  Subject: [#1311] Should we permit multiple labels for one form control?



  In a discussion with Jim Thatcher and Andrew Kirkpatrick the issue of
multiple labels (explicit labels using LABEL "for") for one form control
came up. It is possible to provide more than one LABEL element for a control
by using the same id value in the "for" attribute more than once. The HTML
4.01 specification [1] says "More than one LABEL may be associated with the
same control by creating multiple references via the for attribute."
However, XForms 1.0 [2] appears to only intend a single label per form
control.

  My initial response was that it is unspecified which label should be read.
Andrew in a quick test said "JAWS and WindowsEyes treat the label
differently, JAWS reads the first and WindowsEyes reads the latter." Jim
says _both_ should be read. As a starting proposal I suggest we should
permit multiple form labels, but I think this requires further discussion.

  [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/forms.html#edef-LABEL
  [2]
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-xforms-20031014/slice8.html#ui-commonelems-label

  --- Signature ---

  Michael Cooper
  Accessibility Product Manager, Watchfire
  1 Hines Rd Suite 200, Kanata, ON  K2K 3C7  Canada
  Tel: +1 (613) 599-3888 x4019
  Fax: +1 (613) 599-4661
  Email: michaelc@watchfire.com
  Web: http://www.watchfire.com/